Wonder if Daniel Hannan ever read Sydney Hook's mea culpa:
I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature.

Christopher Snowdon on nicotine and the prohibitionist’s dilemma: In scenario number two, you are a journeyman public health advocate picking up a nice, steady wage from the government every month. You hold lots of meetings and you go to lots of conferences. You and your colleagues developed a ...

Some of you may remember Ms Lierre Keith, a former radical vegan activist turned radical advocate of a return to subsistence farming. Ms Keith has long been a vocal champion of vandalism, harassment and “militant action,” and taken at their own words, she and her colleagues would like to see tho...

Some of you may remember Ms Lierre Keith, a former radical vegan activist turned radical advocate of a return to subsistence farming. Ms Keith has long been a vocal champion of vandalism, harassment and “militant action,” and taken at their own words, she and her colleagues would like to see tho...

Ms Barlow describes herself as “a green and leftwing schoolteacher.” In the comments Karen adds: My grandfather would be surprised to hear that WWII was the Allies’ war against “the blood lust of unfettered capitalism.” Quite. Though I suppose it pays to remember just how intellectually degrad...

Sounds very well considered & enlightened & fair. But...remember the Virginia Tech mass shooting, how Koreans held those big vigils, in part to distance themselves from the Korean-American shooter? They had nothing to do with him, of course--but they felt very keenly the possibility of Koreans getting a bad reputation because of him. No doubt they are reacting to Brother Man On The Bus and his too-short fuse the same way--jumping to all kinds of conclusions about his background and people like him.

Rest in Peace, Tony Curtis. Not only a Hollywood icon, a former WW 2 Navy sailor. Tony Curtis passed away today at age 85. He was always a good one, enjoyable to watch in those movies back in the late 50s like “Some Like It Hot“, as the Great Leslie in “The Great Race” and, of course “Operatio...

Argument by deflection takes on a tinge of cowardice, after a while.
"Now here we come to the great crux of intellectual life: the attitude to violence. It is the fence at which most secular intellectuals, be they pacifist or not, stumble and fall into inconsistency -- or, indeed, into sheer incoherence. They may renounce it in theory, as indeed in logic they must since it is the antithesis of rational methods of solving problems. But in practice they find themselves from time to time endorsing it -- what might be called the Necessary Murder Syndrome -- or approving its use by those with whom they sympathize. Other intellectuals, confronted with the fact of violence practiced by those they wish to defend, simply transfer the moral responsibility, by ingenious argument, to others whom they wish to attack. -- Paul Johnson

by Doctor Science It turns out that Marty Peretz is pretty much a bigotBut, frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes...

I recently saw Restrepo and was struck by how similar much of it was to these clips we've been seeing for years on YouTube and LiveLeak. Vietnam was remarkable because we watched it in our living rooms, on TV. These wars are remarkable because we can watch them anywhere, on demand, via our glowing rectangle of choice.

A church in Florida is planning to burn some Korans to prove, well I don't know what. I guess that Muslims don't love Jesus. This has Gen. Petraeus concerned. (CNN) -- The U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday criticized a Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, warn...

It is a frequent vice of radical polemic to assert, and even to believe, that once you have found the lowest motive for an antagonist, you have identified the correct one.
-- Christopher Hitchens, "Reactionary Prophet", The Atlantic, April 2004

by Eric Martin A reminder to those that advocate for war with Iran of what war entails: In a pastel-colored room at the Baghdad morgue known simply as the Missing, where faces of the thousands of unidentified dead of this war are projected onto four screens, Hamid Jassem came on a Sunday search...

Thank you. We hit nineteen million unique visits yesterday. A few stats as of yesterday, 08-18-10: 19,000,000 unique visits 29,452,569 page views 10,215 posts 140,646 comments 9,109 Subscribers (RSS) Average Time Spent Per Visit: 1:10 minutes Site we received the most traffic over the last mil...

That is the most brutal and effective political cartoon I've seen in a very long time. Now, the question for those of you who are interested in studying information operations, PSYOP (or MISO) is... why? (PSYOP and IO may not be aimed at American populations by the military; but what I'm int...

While piloting the California hills in a new 2011 Buick Regal a few weeks ago, I had a lot of time to talk to some of the brand’s best and brightest. It was an illuminating trip with some surprisingly straight — and very optimistic — talk from folks in marketing, communications and even design...

Audi thinks its Travolution System can help drivers avoid stopping for so many traffic lights. They system allows the car to communicate with lights, so it knows when they’ll turn green. A display tells the driver whether to speed up or slow down to hit all green lights. The system is being t...

The IRS certified the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7 for a tax credit of up to $900 under the Alternative Motor Vehicle provision. The ActiveHybrid 7 is the hybrid version of the 750i/Li and marries an electric motor to the twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8. The eight-speed transmission will take it from zer...

The 2011 Hyundai Sonata continues its dominance on top of our list of most-read reviews. The Ford duo of Fiesta and Mustang round out the top three once again, and the 2011 Buick Regal appears on the list the same week the review was published. 2011 Hyundai Sonata 2011 Ford Fiesta 2011 For...

One of the more unexpected ways of learning about cars is by doing school carpool: opening the doors of vehicles as parents drive up to drop off their kids for school. I get to see a lot of vehicles up close, and slam their doors. The Odyssey is far & away the most popular minivan in my area, based on my observations.

“Minivan Enthusiast” from New York City is pretty disappointed with his 2010 Honda Odyssey. While he’s fine with the quality of the ride, he’s unhappy with the mileage he’s been getting, which is well below the Odyssey’s EPA rating. Maybe he drives in a lot of stop-and-go New York traffic. Wha...

I hope Chrysler stays in business and continues employing thousands of American workers. But you know, I wouldn't have another Chrysler vehicle if I won it in a raffle. First one I owned was my parents' hand-me-down Dodge Coronet 500. Loved it, but I crashed it one year shy of when it would've been an official antique. Next was a 1986 Plymouth Voyager. A 4-cylinder, it burned up the head gasket every 18 months. Next was a 1992 Acclaim. I took good care of it, but it fell apart like a Shriners clown car. No more for me. I can't afford cheap cars anymore. Fortunately for me, Toyota's present woes presented a bottom-feeding opportunity, and I bought a new Camry at a decent price.
Okay, back to the Obama-bashing...

Update: The latest information on the recall can be found here. Chrysler is recalling nearly 35,000 2007 Dodge Calibers and 2007 Jeep Compasses for problems with sticky gas pedals, the Associated Press reports. The cars affected were built from March to May 2006; the recall includes cars sold o...

We’ve been keeping tabs on the upcoming Lexus LFA supercar for some time. It looks like an intriguing car for a company known mostly for luxury sedans and SUVs. Today, the company announced it would make 50 of its 500 LFAs even more special by adding a Nurburgring edition with a sport tuned s...

From all reports, yesterday's major earthquake--the strongest in the area in the last 200 years--has disintegrated a country that was barely being held together in the first place. PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after a power...

I just went to get an iPhone. I failed. Here's what the KTF people told me. Since I am an F-status visa holder (meaning that I have Korean "blood" or am presently legally married to someone with said blood), I can get the iPhone. Since it's a two-year service contract, I guess foreigners who ...

Way too much Army stuff going on around here. Time to splice the mainbrace...shiver up the foc'sle...the smoking lamp is lit in all spaces...as is the drinking lamp, but don't get caught! Avast ye buggers.....Bow, you have a green - launch 'em! This pic is of a F/A-18 from the US Marine Corps...